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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Manuel Cifuentes¹, Grace Sembajwe¹, SangWoo Tak, ScD², Rebecca Gore, PhD¹, David Kriebel, ScD³, and Laura Punnett¹. (1) Department of Work Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, One University Ave., Lowell, MA 01854, 978-934-3132, cif-vill@comcast.net, (2) Dept. of Work Environment, Univ. of Mass. Lowell, 1 University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854, (3) Work Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, One University Ave, Kitson 200, Lowell, MA 01854

The World Health Organization (WHO) World Health Survey (2002-2003) was administered in 70 countries. We examined associations between occupational category and yearly prevalence of depressive episode (n = 267,771; age range 18 to more than 100 years). The aims were to study the distribution of depressive episode by 9 occupational categories across 4 world WHO regions (“A”=developed, “B+C”=low mortality, not developed, “D”=high mortality, non-African, “E”= African countries) and age, gender, marital status, and education as confounding or effect modifiers. Occupational categories referred to a mix of hierarchical position and economic sector. At least 4 of 5 depressive symptoms, most of the day, nearly every day, during a continuous period of more than 2 weeks was defined as “depressive episode.” Associations were studied with multivariable weighted generalized linear mixed model (Proc Glimmix in SAS 9.1) to account for complex sampling and were expressed as prevalence ratio (reference = managers/professionals group). Prevalence of depressive episode ranged from 2.7% (region A) to 9.2% (region D). Occupation, age, gender, marital status, and education were associated with prevalence of episodes. Associations with occupation were modified by age, gender, and marital status. Controlling for education, there were high (p<0.05) relative risks of depressive episode for region “E” clerk (PR=2.0), sales and service (PR=3.1), craft/trade (PR=1.7), elementary (PR=1.9), and military (PR=3.5) workers, and for region “A” elementary workers (PR=1.8). The largest mental health inequalities were observed in one of the poorest regions and in the poorest workers of the richest region.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will learn the prevalence of depressive episodes by occupation across world regions.

Keywords: Occupational Health, Depression

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation